Men In Black

At Sunday's Oscars, expect to see traditional tuxes instead of the colorful shirts and Colonel Sanders neckwear of 'creative black tie.' The classic look is back

By

Darrell Hartman

Updated Feb. 26, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET

In the classic Hollywood era, when the formal look thrived, dapper screen idols like Fred Astaire took their sartorial cues from the indomitably stylish Prince of Wales. These days, leading men align themselves with fashion houses for dressy events. George Clooney's tuxedo of choice comes from Armani, and the designer Tom Ford has been helping Colin Firth look particularly soigné on the Oscar campaign trail for "The King's Speech."

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Colin Firth at the Academy Awards last year. Getty Images

Both Jesse Eisenberg, a best-actor nominee this year, and his "The Social Network" co-star Andrew Garfield are likely to be outfitted this Sunday by the niche label Shipley & Halmos, which has fielded so many requests for formal wear lately that it added a tuxedo to its fall collection. James Franco will be co-hosting the Academy Awards in Gucci; and if Jeff Bridges, who wore the Italian brand when he won best actor last year for "Crazy Heart," is the superstitious type, he may well do the same.

If not for the Oscars, men's formal wear would be a largely forgotten category. So many of its traditional elements—white tie, tails, formal pumps, cummerbunds—have all but gone the way of the dodo bird. But during an awards season that has seen a revival of the classic black-tie look, the penguin suit is flapping its wings a little.

"This idea of mixing—high and low, sloppy and formal—is still around. But I don't think it's quite as aggressively done as it was," said Robert Bryan, author of "American Fashion Menswear." "Three years ago, wearing sneakers with your formal wear was considered hip. Now people are making some kind of attempt to really dress."

For the first time in decades, fashion observers say, they're succeeding. "More guys today are wearing a tuxedo that fits—even older actors are paying attention to this," said Calvin Klein menswear design director Italo Zucchelli. Meanwhile, stylish young actors like Ryan Gosling and Jake Gyllenhaal have been unafraid to don a bow tie.

There's a business element to the renewed attention to detail, of course. For menswear brands like Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana, dressing a star noticeably for an important event is "like having a cover of a magazine," said celebrity stylist Michael Nash, whose clients have included several Oscar nominees.

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Most contemporary imagery of tuxedos comes from media-blitzed awards ceremonies—a contradiction of sorts, given the self-effacing nature of traditional men's formal wear. Red-carpet events inevitably "involve some fantasy of fabulosity," Mr. Zucchelli noted. Fan favorites like Johnny Depp and Mickey Rourke are happy to play into it, for better or worse, and the Grammys have become a very public example of so-called creative black tie.

But now, that free-spirited, costume approach is up against a traditionalist counter-current that has influenced everyone from the more conservative Oscars crowd to neo-dandies like Justin Timberlake, Ne-Yo and Kanye West.

Like other fashion insiders, stylist Mr. Nash sensed something was happening when Brad Pitt attended the 2009 Oscars in a show-stopping tuxedo by Tom Ford. "That moment just resonated. It fit him like a glove and it was perfectly classic," he said.

ENLARGE

Robin Williams in 2005
WireImage/Getty Images

Mr. Ford's '70s-influenced aesthetic—wider lapels, broader shoulders, larger bow ties—has begun to flourish as an alternative to the skinny suit and necktie that Mr. Nash said recently became the "new traditional" black-tie standard, especially for younger celebrities like Zac Efron and Taylor Lautner.

What, if anything, does this sartorial pivot mean for the rest of us? Traditionalists argue that the so-called nonconformist has become the boring norm, and that the nominee or wedding guest who respects the rules has as many ways of expressing his individuality as the one who flouts them.

That's not to say that gentlemen will be donning black tie for dinner (as was the custom in Edith Wharton's era) again anytime soon. As the overarching trend in men's dress over the past half-century has been towards the casual, any fluttering the tuxedo does is against a colossal headwind.

ENLARGE

Jeff Bridges won the best actor award last year for "Crazy Heart."
Getty Images

"Today's average man just wants to wear a suit to a black-tie event, and he doesn't even really want to do that," Mr. Bryan said. "In America, there is little knowledge left of what formal wear should be. Nothing is strictly by the rules, because nobody knows the rules."

Still, regular guys and celebrities seem to have warmed to that idea that it's OK to care about dressing up. "Of our new customers, half have some idea in their head, or a picture," said Vahram Mateosian, owner of the New York tailor shop Mr. Ned. "This is a new frontier for me—over the past five years, people have been taking this kind of interest in what they're wearing."

More of his clients need outfitting for black-tie weddings, Mr. Mateosian said, and more than before, they are interested in personalizing tuxedos in ways their grandfathers would have approved of. He is getting more requests for grosgrain (as opposed to satin) lapels, which contrast more subtly with the jacket fabric, and for formal wear in midnight blue, a traditional option that in certain lights looks more like true black than black.

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"There's a lot more awareness," agreed Colin Heywood, store manager of Savile Row's Anderson & Sheppard. Even savvy suit customers "certainly need more guidance" when it comes to formal wear, he said, but they are just as keen to ask for a button upgrade or a distinctive lining. The next generation of bespoke client, he added, is asking for a cleaner look that includes flat-fronted trousers and a tapered leg.

Mr. Heywood and his staff are no longer trying to talk customers out of side vents, he said—a casual development, to be sure, but hardly a sign of barbarians at the gates. "The waistcoat has been making a bit of a comeback," he added, even if it might be too late to resuscitate its cousin, the cummerbund, for any evening affair that is not a college formal or a high-school prom.

Many would counter that fashion has to move forward, after all. According to Mr. Nash, the hottest trend to go from runway to red carpets is black on black. At Calvin Klein, Mr. Zucchelli has been experimenting with Mylar and other techno fabrics. "I like to update that formality with something that's unexpected," he said. The futuristic sheen of Mr. Zucchelli's formal designs is probably too much for purists, but he maintains that the look is "very evening-y."

Come Sunday, Mr. Firth and Mr. Franco—who is reportedly opting for a traditional look—won't have to do any such convincing.

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